St. James blue-liner out to conquer AHL

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/03/2021 (1970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Garrett Johnston has played for 10 teams in seven leagues in the last nine years. His motto should be, ‘‘Have skates, will travel.”

What drives the 25-year-old St. James product to pursue his ambition of playing the game at the highest level possible? Receiving a promotion to the AHL, like he did earlier this week, is a big part of what keeps him in the game.

Signed to a professional tryout by the Henderson Silver Knights, his next start will be his second in the AHL. It’s a potentially career-altering moment for the 6-2, 205-pound defenceman who had signed to return to the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers last fall.

After the 2018-19 ECHL champions were done in by the pandemic and put in mothballs for the season, Johnston moved to the Utah Grizzlies where he was promptly struck down by COVID-19.

“The first two days I had the sniffles and a little headache, it was like, ‘Wow, this is nothing,’ and then that went away after two days, and then Day 3 to 5 were completely fine,” said Johnston by phone from Henderson, Nev., earlier this week. “I thought maybe I tested false positive or something. And then Day 6, I slept for almost 12 hours, woke up and was exhausted. I could have gone back to sleep for another 10 hours and that lasted for a good week.”

He took two weeks to recover before returning to the ice in December.

Thirty games later he was off to Henderson, a six-hour drive south from Salt Lake City. No promises were made but he’s hoping to parlay the PTO into a two-way contract.

“Being a full-time American League player I think at this point in my life is definitely a dream,” said Johnston. “Just the experiences I’ve had. The amount of places I’ve been in North America I don’t think my friends will be able to do in their lifetime. It’s been insane the amount of travel I’ve done in the last three years since I started playing pro.”

Making a good impression with the Silver Knights could open other doors. Having AHL games on your resume can be a ticket to more lucrative opportunities in Europe.

“The second AHL call-up is always a big one, because you know the first time you get called up it’s ‘Oh well, someone liked you.’ Well now someone else likes you,” said his Winnipeg-based agent Carson Shields,. “I don’t think he’s too old either to really try and make something of this.”

Johnston’s big break almost happened last March. Called up from Newfoundland to the Toronto Marlies, he played one AHL game but the pandemic was lurking just around the corner.

“I’m having such a good year and I ended up getting named top defenceman in Newfoundland,” said Johnston. “I’m not blaming COVID but I think if the season would have continued and we had a really good team, too, I think we would have had a chance of winning (the ECHL title) again and I think things could have been a lot different.

“I don’t know what it would have been but I think I would’ve gotten a good look right at the American League level.”

It’s pretty miraculous Johnston has even reached this stage in a professional career. After skating during his 17-year-old season with the MJHL’s Swan Valley Stampeders and following up with three productive years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he spent 2016-17 with the University of Manitoba Bisons while beginning work on a kinesiology degree.

He also took a full-time job in a furniture warehouse.

But in March, with the Bisons ousted after the first round of the Canada West playoffs, he took ill suddenly with symptoms that appeared to indicate a heart attack. What was eventually diagnosed was a case of pericarditis, a dangerous but treatable inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart.

“I thought, ‘What’s going on?’” remembered Johnston. “It felt like someone’s sitting on my chest, my left arm’s numb. It was nuts. And what sucks about it is there’s not much they can do other than some extra-strength ibuprofen to try and bring that inflammation down and that’s it.”

Johnston seemed to recover but after three months he suffered a relapse. Another three months passed before he felt able to skate again and at the invitation of two old friends, Nick Stire and Graham Philp, he went out to skate with the Gladstone Lakers of the senior men’s Tiger Hills Hockey League.

The informal tryout with his buddies turned into a regular spot on the team and Johnston went on to help the Lakers to a league title. 

“I just never got to play hockey on a competitive team with them before,” said Johnston of playing with Stire and Philp. “That was a huge thing for me where I got to play in a decent league with them and win with them, too. It was a fun year.”

Playing with the Lakers seemed to rekindle his love of the game. On a lark, he filled an opening with the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Birmingham Bulls before finishing 2018-19 with the Growlers.

Conquering the AHL is next up. 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14